2009 Summary and Stats

Although I broke my foot and ended up being mostly out of action during a good part of the prime summer months (including Pikes Peak), I had a great year regardless.

The highlight of the year for me was certainly running the Grand Canyon RRR in April. I ran an 8:43, taking ~1:40 off my previous best from 2006 and was very happy with this. I did not train for it as well as I could have because of an IT band injury prior, but I was well prepared in every other way and had perfect conditions and mindset on the day. I am itching to go back and give it a go again this year, hopefully I can still improve upon my time with better training and more experience.

Other highlights this year include (in no particular order):

Winter 14er ascents with the Winter Warriors.
Winter Longs Peak climb with Tim.
Emperor Couloir on Torreys with Dave and Bob D’s CMC group.
Canyoneering trip to Utah with Allison, Dave, Emily and the dogs.
Informal TT series up the Boulder Peaks in May/June and setting a new PR up Green on the “standard” route.
Watching Lance win the Leadville 100 MTB race with my sister Darcie.
Trip to Alaska (despite a freshly broken foot, I had an awesome time).
Biking Mt. Evans in January.
Lot’s of road riding while I was off my feet.
Plus too many other great outings with Allison, Sierra and friends to bore everyone with here.

In 2010, my goals are to have as few injuries as possible, climb as many new peaks as I can fit in, spend lots of time doing this with Allison, Sierra and my great friends, do some more canyoneering, improve my time for the RRR, help Allison finish her final 5 14ers, improve at Pikes Peak, compete in a few more races (though I am not sure which ones yet) and most importantly, always enjoy myself to the fullest.

2009 by the numbers:

525,314 Vertical Feet
1,501 Miles
28 14ers
23 13ers
7 12ers
1 10er
53 Trips up Green Mountain
47 x Sanitas
43 x Bear
30 x S. Boulder
214 Days on my feet
50 Days on the bike
247 Total Summits

For kicks, I added up the numbers for the past 5 years (the only years I have kept detailed records):

2,823,889 Vertical Feet (equivalent to 535 vertical miles, or 361 Pikes Peak Ascents from Manitou, or 2,259 trips up the Empire State Building, or 97 trips up Everest from sea level).
7,551 Miles
114 14ers
At least 1,159 total Summits (including repeats)